Real Madrid travel to Liverpool on Tuesday February 21 for the Champions League Round of 16 first leg. Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has announced the return of Ballon d’Or Karim Benzema, saved against Osasuna last weekend.
Nine months after their duel in champions league final, Liverpool and Real Madrid find themselves in the round of 16 first leg. Between them, they have 20 victories in the most prestigious of continental competitions. The two clubs had also played in the C1 final in 2018. The poster is still just as attractive, even if the two teams, on different scales, are struggling in their championship.
Real without Tchouaméni or Kroos
After 22 days, Karim Benzema’s Real Madrid are in second place in La Liga, eight behind Barcelona. Benzema, preserved this weekend during the victory at Osasuna (2-0), should hold his place well, as well as the right side Dani Carvajal, back from a muscle injury after six matches of unavailability. But the Merengues will be deprived of two indisputable holders in the middle since the French Aurélien Tchouaméni and the German Toni Kroos, sick, do not appear in the group summoned for the match.
But for the Reds, this C1, in which they have reached the final three times in the last five editions, could be a breath of fresh air as the season is so chaotic at the moment.
With two games less than 4th, Tottenham, the seven points behind Liverpool (8th) in the qualifying places for the next C1 does not seem to be prohibitive. Except that the extremely irregular performances since the start of the championship, where the team has sometimes given the impression of having lost its intensity and its ruthless side which have led it to so much success, do not inspire confidence.
Reds in reconquest
“ I’m really surprised that Liverpool are so far from first place in the Premier League, but they can also say the same about us right now in La Liga. So I’m not going to say anything! Seeing the Liverpool team, we know that at any time they can react and start coming back into the season. I hope it won’t be in these two Champions League games against us, but we have to be ready “, commented the Madrilenian Luka Modric.
If the victory at Newcastle, 5th, (2-0), last Saturday, was good, it is a bit of a sham, the score being acquired after 20 minutes and the Magpies having played 70 minutes at 10 after their keeper was sent off. This second success in a row in the league thus followed four games without a win which themselves followed four victories … The Reds will therefore not start as favourites.